Improve Your Eyesight Naturally

by Leo Anghart

  Today we know Bates’ work as the “Bates Method,” which he outlined in his book Better Eyesight without Glasses. The interest in Vision Training has endured to this day and Bates’ book is still in print more than 80 years after its original publication.

  Since then the scientific community, with only a few exceptions, has completely ignored Bates’ findings. The proponents of the Bates Method have been people who were helped by the technique.

  One such person was Margaret D. Corbett whose husband was greatly helped by the Bates Method in the 1930s. Mrs. Corbett went on to establish the School of Eye Education in Los Angeles and trained many people in the Bates Method. In her book Help Yourself to Better Sight (1949) she describes many incidents where her work had great impact on the careers of military men. One such story concerns a young man who had been rejected several times by the Air Force because of deficient vision. He normalized his eyes by using the Bates exercises, passed all tests and joined the Flying Tigers in Burma where he became a flight leader. He returned with ten Japanese planes to his credit. After that, his score continued to mount, as did his rank, and he eventually became a lieutenant colonel.

  In 1955 Clara Hackett published Relax and See: A Daily Guide to Better Vision. The book is designed around a 12-week exercise program for various vision problems. These include the common problems like myopia and hyperopia, plus exercises for bifocal wearers, crossed eyes, color-blindness and cataracts as well as glaucoma and serious vision problems. She also included step-by-step exercises for the blind.

  Miss Hackett, who herself wore glasses for more than 19 years, taught eye training in Seattle for five years and trained teachers under the G.I. Bill of Rights. She was on the visiting faculty of Seattle University in 1949 and 1950, giving courses in Vision Training. After moving to New York, she was arrested in 1950 on the charge of practicing optometry without a license and appeared before a grand jury in 1951. The jury deliberated only for few minutes – Vision Training is not a crime.

  Janet Goodrich, Ph.D., in discussing possible reasons why so few people have heard of the Bates Method, writes:

  [T]he professional, technically trained eye practitioners … were taught that the Bates method was ineffective, to be derided and disdained …

  Margaret Corbett admonished the hundreds of teachers she trained in the 1940s and 1950s never to advertise, lecture, or publish articles. More understanding is generated by the knowledge that she was arrested (and acquitted) twice for practicing optometry without a license …

  In 1974, my colleague in San Francisco, Mrs. Anna Kaye, who’d been quietly transmitting Bates Method principles for several decades, was visited by undercover agents. She was told she was breaking the law on sixteen counts …

  You may now realize why substantiated objective proof is scarce. (1986: 184–185)

  Goodrich contributed greatly to the field of Vision Training through her two books Natural Vision Improvement (1986) and Perfect Sight the Natural Way (1996), as well as her lectures and workshops around the world.

  In 1997 Thomas R. Quackenbush published Relearning to See, which is perhaps the most comprehensive book on the Bates Method to date. The book adheres very closely to Bates’ original work and Quackenbush often quotes Bates’ publications extensively. Thomas Quackenbush is based in Holland.

  Indian ophthalmologist Dr. R. S. Agarwal became interested in Bates’ work in 1930 and has since been actively teaching the Bates Method in Pondicherry in India. Over the years Agarwal published many articles in Mother India, a monthly journal of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, as well as developing a synthesis of traditional ophthalmology and the Bates Method which was published in Mind and Vision and Secrets of Indian Medicine. A popular book called Yoga of Perfect Eyesight was published in 1971. This book is still in print and contains many wonderful stories of how Dr. Agarwal helped people regain their eyesight.

  In the U.K. the Bates Method has taken root and is represented by the Bates Association of Great Britain. The method is described in The Bates Method by Peter Mansfield (1997).

  During the 1990s there was a marked movement towards complementary approaches in dealing with health problems. For example, acupuncture was accepted as a valid treatment method and is now taught in several medical schools.

  However, the economic advantages of prescribing drugs or devices is financially much more lucrative than simply training the eyes to regain their normal state of clear vision. Even more lucrative is recommending refractive surgery, which costs thousands of dollars per eye.

  From the consumer’s point of view, the most effective way to treat the problem is not necessarily the most expensive way. Hopefully the new millennium will see an increased interest in effective, non-invasive methods by people in general and by science in particular. Currently the percentage of people wearing glasses is almost 60 percent of the general population. In Asia this figure is fast approaching 80 percent of the population. Something needs to be done to put it right.

  Vision Training, started early on, is the simple answer to maintaining good eyesight.

  3. Regaining Your Eyesight – Is It Possible?

  Most people believe that there is nothing you can do about deteriorating vision. The prevailing wisdom is that as we grow older our senses begin to fail and eyesight just happens to be the one that tends to go first.

  Scientists tell us that statistically the world’s population of 6-year-olds has bright and clear vision. A study of myopia (near-sight) over the last hundred years commissioned by the U.S. Army, tells us that the prevalence of vision problems is currently around 60 percent.

  Eye doctors (ophthalmologists) learn virtually nothing about Vision Training when they attend medical school. The focus is on the use of drugs and surgery. Indeed, surgery is the proffered solution for many serious eye problems. Lenses are the most common remedy suggested, with laser surgery recommended if near-sight has been stable for at least three years. It is important to realize that wearing glasses does absolutely nothing for your near-sight. When you take off your glasses you are still near-sighted. The glasses do indeed provide a quick fix for the problem but they do not address the underlying reason you became near-sighted in the first place.

  Laser surgery is currently very popular and is highly recommended by many ophthalmologists. Having the lenses carved on your cornea is an irrevocable way of altering your vision. However, all laser surgery actually does is shave a few microns off your cornea. Any mistake will be with you for the rest of your life. My eyes are the last place I want anyone to tinker, especially when there are natural ways of regaining one’s eyesight. Optometrists are licensed and trained to measure your eyes and to prescribe corrective lenses. Their entire training revolves around the correction of visual defects and the selling of glasses. It is understandable, therefore, that they are not too enthusiastic about any suggestions that you can do away with your glasses altogether by simple Vision Training exercises.

  Behavioural optometrists are a group who believe that exercises can reduce the progression of near-sightedness. They are generally open to the idea of Vision Training and will, in most cases, be happy to prescribe lenses lower than 100 percent correction. If you go to your optometrist or ophthalmologist and say that you want to do some Vision Training with the objective of getting rid of your glasses, you will most probably be told, very patiently, that this is unfortunately not possible and that you should continue to wear them.

  Of all the optometrists practicing in Europe there are only about 200 who are members of various behavioural optometrist associations (The College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) in the U.S. The British Association of Behavioural Optometrists (BABO) and Australasian College of Behavioural Optometrists (ACBO).

  Functional or behavioural optometrists are mainly concerned with the treatment of amblyopia, strabismus and eye co-ordination problems. They do not yet have any methods for treating common visual problems such as astigmatism, myopia and hyperopia. The therapy approach us
ually involves an initial eye examination where your visual status is determined. Reduced lens prescription and eye exercises are then prescribed. Lately computer-aided Vision Training software has been developed and introduced. I have some reservations about this approach since computer work is one of the causes of myopia. Using the computer to eliminate vision problems seems to be a contradiction. Behavioural optometrists often use an assortment of equipment for measurement and training. My approach does not involve any mechanical equipment. There is nothing you need to buy or take; there are no expensive therapy sessions you need to pay for. What is required is your active participation by doing the appropriate exercises, and then you will see constant progress towards regaining your natural clear eyesight.

  Have your eyes tested

  There are two tests employed in determining what strength of lenses you need to correct your vision to perfect 20/20. Usually the optometrist will use a machine to get an objective reading. The machine employs a calculated average with a plus or minus half diopter margin of error. It tests for absolutely perfect focusing at a distance of 6 meters.

  The second test is a subjective test where you look through several kinds of lenses in order to establish which ones are the most comfortable. This test usually takes place in a room with dim light. Part of the problem is that your eyes keep trying to adapt to the various lenses and in doing so you tend to be handed a prescription that is too strong. You have probably experienced coming back the next day and trying on the new glasses only to find that they hurt your eyes. This is because the glasses are over-corrected and the focus is too sharp for your eyes.

  The human eye varies by as much as 2 diopters in visual acuity during the day. If you measure your vision every few hours you will discover a different reading every time.

  However, it is a good idea to have your eyes tested before you start on your Vision Training program. You will then know precisely what the status of your vision is and how it will register on the eye doctor’s equipment. Then go ahead and start your Vision Training. You will probably notice an improvement quite quickly. This is your subjective experience of vision which is always ahead of the objective measure. You might be able to actually see and read four or five more lines on the eye-chart, but the machine will not show any improvement at all. The machine measures only absolutely perfect focusing – not the fact that you can see better. Do yourself a favor and carry on with your Vision Training exercises for about a month before you go for another eye test. However, during that period you may need to have the power of your lenses reduced, since the old prescription will no longer be relevant and the lenses may start to hurt your eyes.

  Visiting the optometrist

  Some optometrists are opposed to reducing a prescription to less than the results of their test. If your optometrist belongs to that category, then I suggest you find someone else!

  Let the optometrist measure your eyes using his instruments. By the way, just measuring your eyes with the automatic equipment is only a rough estimate. The machines vary and have a plus–minus error factor of half a diopter (one line on the eye-chart). When the optometrist has finished his test you will have what he determines to be 100 percent correction of your vision. Usually you will find this to be incredibly sharp and in some cases so sharp it actually hurts the eyes. Ask the optometrist to reduce the prescription by 0.5 or 1 diopter. Then go outside into the street and look though the test lenses he has prescribed. It is not enough to just look around in the optometry shop or the shopping mall. You need to see how the glasses work in daylight and by looking at the real world.

  For the best results, get a prescription which gives you distance vision that is slightly soft. This will give a correction of about 20/40 distance vision. However, make sure that your prescription is not under-corrected by more than 1 diopter. If you reduce the correction more by than this there is a chance that you will actually begin to strain the eyes, in which case progress in Vision Training will be greatly reduced.

  Understanding your prescription

  The prescription you get from the optometrist looks like Greek to most people. It makes no sense whatsoever. Actually it is much simpler than it looks. Firstly it shows one measurement for the left eye and one for the right eye. Usually this is indicated with an “L” for the left eye and an “R” for the right.

  The first column indicates the degree of refractive error (i.e., it tells you whether you are myopic and by what degree). This measurement is indicated in diopters. If you are myopic then there will be a minus indication such as -2.50 D – minus two-and-a-half diopters. In some countries this is referred to as 250 (they simply drop the period). If you are hyperopic (far-sighted) or presbyopic (need reading glasses) then the indication will be +1.50 D or plus one-and-a-half diopters. Note that there often is a difference in the prescription for each eye, as one eye is better than the other.

  The next column indicates if there is any astigmatism. This is also measured in diopters as well as the axis in which the astigmatism is found. The notation might be something like this: Cyl: -0.5 Axis: 85. The translation reads a cylinder correction of minus one-half of a diopter at an 85 degree axis. Note it is possible to have astigmatism in only one eye, or that the degree and axis can differ from one eye to the other. The third column is usually dedicated to divergence. The reading for strabismus is usually corrected using “prism elements.” These are indicated in prism diopters and the Greek letter Δ is often used to indicate that a prism element is included.

  There will generally be a space on the form for any additional notes from the optometrist. Sometimes near vision will also be tested, and there could be a prescription for combination or bifocal lenses. Another possibility is that you are given a prescription for glasses with variable focus lenses that have two or three areas with different lens power. Suggested lenses and frames are also often noted.

  The slips of paper that are printed out from machines used to check visual acuity also show other numbers that are relevant if you are being fitted with contact lenses.

  4. Anatomy of the Eye

  The human eye is an anatomical masterpiece. The eye is about 24 mm in diameter and functions as the interface between the outside world and the inner world. The physical eye is responsible for capturing images of objects in the outer world. It is similar to a video camera and indeed they have many things in common. However, the human eye is far superior to any camera built to date. For example, the human eye has much greater sensitivity to light. You can find your way in almost complete darkness as well as deal with bright sunlight on a beach. The video camera has a very limited range in comparison to the human eye.

  The eye muscles

  There are six external muscles attached to each eye. These muscles work in pairs to enable you to move your eyes in all directions. Eye muscles are unique in their ability to move the eye very quickly and precisely to point it in the direction of what you want to observe. The muscles can also adjust in real time and allow you to track a tennis ball from one end of a court to the other.

  The four rectus muscles are located around the eye. The one above the eye – the rectus superior – is the muscle responsible for moving the eye upwards. The lower rectus muscle – the rectus inferior – is responsible for moving the eye downwards. These two muscles work in tandem to enable your eyes to move up and down to any degree. Horizontal movements of the eyes are accomplished by the medial rectus and lateral rectus muscles located on each side of the eye. Together the four rectus muscles give the eye the capacity to move in all directions.

  In addition there is also a pair of muscles attached to the back of the eye. These are called the oblique muscles because they enable the eyes to move both towards and away from each other. This enables you to point your eyes as well as track objects moving towards and away from you. The upper – superior oblique – muscle is attached to the bone near the nose with a long tendon. This muscle is used when you cross your eyes towards your nose.

  Your ext
erior eye muscles are also involved in adjusting the focus. In his pioneering research William H. Bates (1915) concluded that the oblique muscles focus by squeezing the eyeball and moving the retina into a position where the image is in perfect focus. He likened the function to that of a camera. When you want to focus it on something close-up, you move the lens forward. In the human eye the same principle is employed by squeezing the eyeball slightly to keep the image focused.

  This action is mainly accomplished by the two oblique muscles. In myopia the back of the eye is permanently pushed out causing difficulty in focusing. Far-sight is a condition where the four rectus muscles are held very tightly causing the eyeball to become shorter. To give you an idea of the scale of these movements, each millimeter the eyeball is elongated is equivalent to approximately 3 diopters of myopia. With this degree of myopia your vision would go from normal to being able to see clearly only up to 30 cm, approximately the normal reading distance. The physical changes that take place are minute but with huge consequences.

  Inside the eye there are two circular muscles. One muscle determines the size of the iris and how much light enters the eye. The other muscle is circular in shape and located around the lens.

  The cornea

  The clear part of the eye, the cornea, is responsible for about 75 percent of the focusing power of the eye. The greatest refractive effect is achieved at the interface between the air and the tear film. This is why refractive surgery is possible. Shaving off even minute portions of the cornea has a major effect on the focusing power of your eye.